en:pegDigital :: 4-pack MP3 Review Combo

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  • Decadnids :: Gumble Chutney the Sea Ferret (en:peg, MP3)

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    (02.21.05) Decadnids’ first release for en:peg is Gumble Chutney the Sea Ferret,
    a Exquisite Corpse style title that is in keeping with the general
    mood of the music. Muffled thuds, warped pianoforte, fuzzed
    electronic beats, and analog tones all swirl together across these
    thirteen tracks. I accidentally had my MP3 player on random shuffle
    for the first few times I listened to this record and it certainly
    didn’t seem to harm the “flow” of the music. It’s not dangerously
    experimental, but rather like the ambient scatter of flotsam along the
    gentle ocean currents.

    “Transopheow” burbles and warps in an onomatopoeic fashion, its rising
    bursts of sound like the half-formed word of its name while
    electronically-damaged piano notes try to formulate a clear melody.
    “Janglef” is a concertino hovering on the brink of drum ‘n’ bass like
    a mad Mozart creation of a century or so ago as remixed by a modern
    laptop junkie. “Ooh” squelches and crackles with the soundtrack
    menace of an improperly closed airlock and you with your spacesuit
    helmet on the other side of the small cabin of the spaceship. “Goof”
    rattles with mad machinery doing an impromptu dance while a series of
    ambient jewel tones rise like slow effervescence.

    Gumble Chutney the Sea Ferret has its own rhythm, most definitely, and
    some of it works better than the rest. But overall, Decadnids has an
    interesting sound all their own that is worth a bit of your time.
    There are curiously rhythmic pieces that catch your fancy like an
    intricate pattern of drifting detritus on the surface of a slow-moving
    current. You stop to watch for a bit, to just watch how the patterns
    evolve as the material drifts by, and suddenly an hour has gone by.
    Funny how that happens. (4/5)

  • Decadnids Website

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  • Renku :: Persist (en:peg, MP3)

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    (02.21.05) The eight relatively untitled tracks of Renku’s Persist run nearly
    eighty minutes in length with a number of the tracks clocking in
    around the ten-minute mark. Heard as a full album, Persist falls in
    the Peter Namlook, FAX label category of electronic mood music where
    themes and motifs are examined, explored, redrafted again with
    variations and encapsulated one final time before moving on. Skittery
    IDM turns into blissful trance that fragments into shining ambience
    before flowing into a crackling cohesion of electronic parts. “PR2”
    moves in gentle arcs of sound with a Boards of Canada style innocence
    while “PR3” hums with the restless rhythm of high speed roadways at
    night. “PR4” travels across several times zones with its acrobatic
    synthesizer melodies, chasing the late night back room vibe as the
    world turns towards dawn, while “PR5” hustles and chirps with the
    volatile effervescence of pistons and steam gaskets. Persist is
    perfect for long trips where you want something that evolves
    organically in your head without the added effort of lyrics or
    fractured rhythms. (5/5)

  • Renku Website

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  • ADJective :: ADJective (en:peg, MP3)

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    (02.21.05) Melodic drum and bass, ADJective’s first release on en:peg bounces
    back and forth between melodic IDM and skittering drum ‘n’ bass.
    “Launching Elephants” squeals with a cascade of vocal effects like the
    distorted sounds of children sliding down lengthy water slides while
    “I Am An Angry Caterpillar” bubbles with 8-bit video games sounds as
    if it were the theme song for one of Atari’s more aggressive video
    game villains.

    Most of the succinct tracks (they run about two minutes each, on
    average) are brief diversions, tiny little squiggles of gentle melody
    and shuffling percussion. “Vaporul” sings along with rapid-fire
    percussion that sounds like wire brushes on water and playful strings
    caper about a spinning dervish of a drum ‘n’ bass rhythm during
    “Blueberry.” ADJective is tub tunes for the playful animal in all of
    us while we splash and chortle with glee in the water. (4/5)

  • ADJective Website

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  • Bitcrush :: Shimmer and Fade (en:peg, MP3)

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    (02.21.05) Mike Cadoo continues his exploration of the shoegazer aesthetic that
    he hinted at with Enarc (Component, 2004), his last full length CD release. Shimmer and
    Fade
    is a collection of experiments with real instrumentation: guitar
    and drums with the gentlest of processing and synthesizer work to add
    texture to these tracks. That’s what he’s all about here: texture ala
    My Bloody Valentine and the lamentations of lost souls that pervaded
    Joy Division. After “Shimmer,” the two minute opener that draws us in
    on a wave of noise, “Aventious” carefully unfolds with a sound mirage
    of processed guitar — full arcs of elongated notes that fill the air
    with glowing contrails of sound. With “No Bridge No Water,” Cadoo
    fully engages the Wayback Machine, reaching through its slot to that
    early period of British Alternative (before “alternative” was a bad
    word) and bringing through echoes of The Cure, My Bloody Valentine and
    Jesus and Mary Chain. “The Missing” and “Waiting For Something” are
    filled with ghosts of guitar textures and spectral voices, fading
    walls of sound that are the foundations of digitized constructs —
    delicate edifices built of crystallized electronics.

    If en:peg is all about experimentation at inexpensive prices for
    everyone, then Cadoo’s efforts with Shimmer and Fade are an
    interesting window into the creative process. He’s asks us to indulge
    him for a few dollars as if he were down in the subway at one of the
    major intersections with a guitar, beatbox, and portable speaker.
    There are two signs on the wall behind him, pointing in opposite
    directions. “This way to modern electronica and DSP love,” says one.
    This way to the history of guitar textures and massive walls of
    overdubs
    ,” says the other. Cadoo is at the crossroad, mixing the
    sounds that come from either passage. (5/5)

  • Bitcrush Website

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    All releases are currently available at www.enpeg.com for $2/ea.

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